Planetary Annihilation is an RTS set IN SPACE! Created by Uber Entertainment and funded by Kickstarter, it follows factious robots in their separate (and conflicting) quests to conquer the galaxy. Players have control over all robots in their army and can build an empire across multiple star systems.

This game provides examples of the following tropes:

Absent Aliens: The only thing known about the Progenitors is that they came before the commanders. One of the factions believes 1) they must be eliminated at all costs, and 2) they are even now preparing to attack and destroy the robots.

The background info does mention another race (Xziphid) the robots were originally created to fight by the Progenitors, but there's no sign of them either.

Action Bomb: Bomb bots. Incredibly cheap, quick to produce, and with very low health, they have no actual armament. They do, however, explode when close enough to an enemy unit or building. One or two can be picked off with ease... but you never send just one or two.

To an extent, Commanders are this - upon dying, they explode in a nuclear fireball, and some games with multiple Commanders on a side would see a Commander just walking into an enemy base and suiciding, taking out half the base at the same time (this technique is called "Com Bomb" by the community and is now not as feasible anymore due to much lower commander explosion damage).

The commander has the "Uber cannon", similar in function to the two predecessors

Colony Drop: The Halley Engine allows players to change the orbits of medium to small planets. The new orbit does not have to be stable, or free of other planets...

Colour Coded Armies: With no unit cap, this is the only way to have a hope of telling what's going on in any large battle.

Construct Additional Pylons: Completely justified in-game, as you're taking part in a rolling war where only the commanders travel to planets, use up all the resources and then move onto the next, requiring that they construct everything needed to wage war on-the-go.

Crippling Overspecialization: The AI opponents in Galactic Conquest mode have preferred strategies like swarms of aircraft or bots which are easily countered. It gets really sad when an AI puts all of it's resources into naval dominance of a planet with barely enough water to hold its base.

And equally annoying if you're unlucky enough to have only unlocked vehicles at the time.

Critical Existence Failure: Commanders can walk around just fine with next to no HP, but one hit over that and they turn into a mushroom cloud.

Fragile Speedster: All unit types have a basic scout that is this, but bot and T1 air are build around this

Fog of War: You can only see what your troops see, and some buildings have a firing radius larger than their sight range. Radar is a must for getting their full effect... and getting warning of approaching hordes.

Not Hyperbole: Yes, you can actually annihilate planets over the course of the game.

Nuclear Option: Little bit on the small scale, but still devastating to bases built compactly.

Terrain can sometimes force attacking armies to come at one or two easily-blockaded points. Just cram the opening with defensive structures and you're safe... unless you forget to add an Anti-Nuke Launcher, an oversight that can lead to instant annihilation.

Oh Crap!: Can happen numerous ways. Enemy got a Kill Sat over your base and you've got nothing that can hit it? A thousand tanks closing from all sides? Nuclear missiles roaring in with no counter-missiles to stop them? Minor planet about to fall on your head? Oh Crap!.

Orbital Bombardment: If the enemy doesn't have any Umbrellas to shoot down orbital units, an orbital laser is practically unstoppable. Just make sure that while you're busy reducing buildings to dust, the other side isn't returning the favor...

Point Defenseless: You should never be that. If you forgot to guard against air or orbital attacks, this could be a game over in less then 30 seconds of the enemy making thier presence known.

Quantity vs. Quality: Do you hurry and build the most advanced units to wipe out enemies from distances at which they can't even see you, much less respond? Or do you rush five hundred cheap, weak units and overwhelm everything in your path through sheer numbers?

Suicide Attack: Often, waves of units will be sent out as distractions or delays, with no intent of having them survive. Also the whole point of existence for the Bomb Bot, whose only weapon is the bomb on its back. Even Commanders can do this, if you have more than one - just walk into the middle of the enemy base and die in a nuclear fireball. (This is generally only done by the supremely confident or the supremely desperate, because - as previously mentioned - once your last Commander is dead, it's Game Over)

Tank Goodness: All the vehicle units look like some kind of tank. Some have anti-air missiles, some have BF Gs, and some are mobile artillery.

Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: Comes with teh terriory of being a RTS: Bots are good at raiding or hit/run but die to defenses. Defenses die to vehicles. Vechiles are rather vulnerable to Air. Air should really not fly to close to bot swarms

This Is Gonna Suck: One of the possible reactions to seeing five hundred enemy tanks appear from one direction while three hundred (each) fighters and bombers roar in from the other. Give or take a few hundred.

We Have Reserves: By the end of a planet-side campaign, many players are cramming out so many units they tend to send out hordes with little regard to whether they survive or not. Averted early game where losing a few Worker Units can be a large setback.

Walk, Don't Swim: Commanders walk on the bottom of seabeds while all construction in the water are placed on floating rafts.

Several Bots can do that too to support thier mobility and ability to raid enemy economy.

Worker Unit: Fabrication units, nicknamed "Fabbers". Your commander can create basic buildings, but you're going to need some dedicated units to get anything done before your untimely death. Tier 1 fabbers are faster at moving and slower at building than the Commander, but have an expanded build menu and are significantly more expendable. Tier 2 fabbers build faster and have even more build options, but are themselves more expensive and take longer to produce.

You Require More Vespene Gas: Energy and Metal. Though both are theoretically infinite, the challenge comes from producing enough to meet demand. If you can get a force behind enemy lines, generators and metal extractors can better targets than factories - they have less health, and if you leave the factories running the actual efficiency will nose-dive as resource debt skyrockets. Taking out the factories instead leaves plenty of surplus resources for rapid rebuilding.

Zerg Rush: A viable tactic in the early stages of the game is overrunning limited defenses with weak (but cheap) units, particularly bots; this was a popular tactic of Uber's Community Manager Brad.

Being a mix of glass cannon and speedster Bot's need to use that against anything that shoots back.

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